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SAN ANTONIO — Even when not embedded in the law, transparency — and reasonable limits — should be the guiding principles in campaign financing.

Disclosure is how voters know which interests are backing candidates — important in discerning which winds blowing from which direction will attempt to move candidates once they are elected.

This is why Democratic gubernatorial nominee Wendy Davis should voluntarily disclose the names of the roughly 100,000 donors who have made small contributions to her campaign. They have donated $3.25 million of her $27 million total.

These hidden donations were explained in an Express-News article Friday by David Saleh Rauf.

Davis violates no law in not disclosing these donors. Still, she should tell voters who they are.

And if this is important, determining who is providing all the dark money infiltrating Texas campaigns is doubly important. House Speaker Joe Straus has tasked a committee to determine how to do that.

Transparency is about doing the work of democracy, lending it credibility because all cards on the table get shown. In other words, more effort means more credible democracy.

And while small donors individually don't have the clout that mega-donors do, in aggregate they can. Disclosing them can lead to what triggered the aggregate giving.

Everyone, of course, can make credible guesses.

Davis' filibuster of Texas' draconian abortion laws earned her national attention as a champion of women's issues, and it stands to reason that this might be the source of many of these donations.

And there is nothing wrong with this if this is the motivation for giving. But knowing is better than guessing. Moreover, disclosure can reveal if there is any coordinated giving occurring.

Many of these — another guess — will be from outside of Texas. There is nothing illegal about this either. But knowing rather than guessing can help voters discern how much support a candidate is enjoying in the state.

Davis — and all candidates — should disclose even these small donors. And as we have said before big “dark money” donors should see the light of day as well.